On Wednesday, Apr. 16, the University of North Dakota’s student body will have the opportunity to vote for who they would like to see representing their interests as members of the UND Student Government. Aside from a host of senators in charge of representing students across campus and beyond, voters will have their pick between two potential administrations: Jack Sandvig and Reet Goyal or Jonathan Blankenship and Joslyn Sutton. As election day rapidly approaches, both presidential candidates have taken the time to share more about their backgrounds, experiences, and their goals for UND.
Originally from Milbank, SD, Sandvig began his career with UND’s Student Government after being elected as an off-campus senator under current President Connor Ferguson’s administration.
Sandvig has a number of important changes he wants to see on campus; one of which is the implementation of “Dead Week,” a practice common across college campuses where the week before finals is intentionally made easy on students.
“It’s called ‘Dead Week’ because it’s supposed to be dead,” Sandvig said. “It’s supposed to be a time of studying, professors being accessible, no final projects or tests. It’s supposed to give you a break before finals, a calm before the storm.”
Citing working relationships with those on campus who have the power to implement such a measure, he is confident that he can make “Dead Week” at UND a reality. This is just one of the goals laid out by Sandvig and Goyal’s “See the Good” campaign, one of the primary missions of which is to optimize student life on campus.
“One of the biggest issues with UND’s student culture and student life is a lack of student cohesion,” Sandvig said. “There’s a lot of good programs around campus, a lot of them just don’t get much attention. First and foremost, in these [leadership] positions, we want to boost up a lot of the good on campus.”
Sandvig seeks to solve this lack of cohesion in a variety of ways, namely by increasing cooperation between student government and various clubs and organizations. He also wants to provide students with more opportunities to engage in campus culture, such as the addition of new pickleball courts and the establishment of the annual Olympic-style Fighting Hawk Games.
“There’s a million ideas, I could go on all day about optimizing student life,” Sandvig said.
Like Sandvig, Blankenship also has prior experience in UND Student Government, serving as student senate secretary and a student ambassador. Originally from Texas, Blankenship says that his efforts to listen to and advocate for UND students began the very first day he stepped onto campus two years ago.
“I believe it is the responsibility of student leaders to not only encourage students to get involved but to help facilitate opportunities for all students to be involved,” Blankenship said. “My campaign was built around a shared desire to represent all UND students.”
This desire to represent all students has taken the form of Blankenship and Sutton’s “Voice for All” campaign, which pushes for the implementation of several measures aimed at improving student life at UND. One such improvement is making certain safety measures available to the student body in order to help ensure a safer campus. Two things specifically mentioned by Blankenship were Nightcap products, cup and bottle covers meant to prevent the possibility of drink spiking, and a late-night shuttle service on campus.
If elected, Blankenship says he also hopes to fix what he believes is a problem in UND Student Government.
“I’ve noticed a cycle developing within student government, with some of our student leaders only promoting and sharing information with buddies while aligning them for future positions,” Blankenship said. “I am running for student body president to get our student government back on track to doing the job of representing and supporting all of the UND student body.”
Students who wish to learn more about both Sandvig and Blankenship’s campaigns can do so via their Instagram handles, @blankenshipsutton and @sandvig.goyal2025. Student government elections will be held Wednesday, Apr. 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Quinn Berg is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at quinn.berg@und.edu.
